Where Killers Roam, the Poison Spreads - New York Times

Kristof deserves great credit for exposing both the Darfur genocide and the shamefully muted response in the West.

Where Killers Roam, the Poison Spreads - New York Times: "These areas are too insecure for the United Nations and most international aid workers, who are already doing a heroic and dangerous job in Darfur and Chad. So Mr. Ali and others left behind get no food aid and go hungry.

In the last few weeks, President Bush has shown an increased willingness to address the slaughter in Darfur. He should now encourage the French to use their forces to defend Chad from proxy invasions, make a presidential speech to spotlight the issue, attend a donor conference for Darfur, encourage the use of a NATO bridging force until U.N. peacekeepers can arrive, enforce a no-fly zone and open a new initiative for peace talks among the sheiks of Darfur.

The present Western policy of playing down genocide and hoping it will peter out has proved to be bankrupt practically as well as morally. Granted, there are no neat solutions in Darfur. But ignoring brutality has only magnified it, and it's just shameful to pretend not to notice the terrified villagers here, huddling with their children each night and wondering when they are going to be massacred."